MICHAEL BLOODGOOD, Christian hard rock pioneer and founder of BLOODGOOD, dies

Bass player Michael Bloodgood christian hard rockers WELL BLOOD is dead.

According to his bandmates, Michael dropped on Friday, July 29 at 8:15 a.m. CDT.

More than five months ago Bloodgood suffered a hemorrhagic stroke and subsequent cerebral hemorrhage. He was airlifted to hospital but never fully recovered.

“After a gallant fight that began with a severe hemorrhagic stroke in February 2022, he has returned home to be with our Heavenly Father,” the band wrote in a social media post.

“We will cherish Michaelthe generous spirit, quirky sense of humor and musical soul of . His devotion to the Lord and sharing the gospel through his ministry as a pastor and musician touched countless lives.”

Michael is survived by his wife of 46 years, Marilyntheir three sons and two grandchildren.

In an article published in May on fundraising website GiveSendGo, it was reported that Michael had started talking and was communicating with the doctors.

WELL BLOOD was on tour at the time of Michaeland was working on new material.

However Bloodgood had no intention of forming a Christian heavy metal band in 1984, which is how the music industry called them. Unfortunately, his faith-based lyrics caused a stir in mainstream music, especially among hard rock bands who thought WELL BLOOD was too soft for his shrill, rock genre. Moreover, Christians believed WELL BLOODThe music of was devil’s evil and banned his music and held his concerts in the cities he visited.

WELL BLOOD put all that adversity aside and became one of the top four Christian heavy metal bands in 1988. The band’s later lineup included guitarist fox of oza member of STRYPERarguably the most popular Christian metal band in musical history.

In 1986, the group released the platinum disc “Detonation”. They have also released five other albums, including their latest, 2013’s “Dangerously Close”. In 2010, WELL BLOOD was inducted into Christian Music Hall of Fame.

In his biography on WELL BLOOD website, Michael wrote: “My musical direction took a rather different path halfway through my senior year in high school when I gave my life to Christ. Suddenly all I wanted to do was share my new life and spread the gospel using rock ‘n roll music, so the following year I started my first Christian band, CROSSROADS. To our knowledge, there was very little contemporary Christian rock at that time, so we started revamping old hymns by adding rock guitar hooks to them, doing covers like “Jesus is fine”. We played anywhere and everywhere we could, including parks, Christian cafes in Southern California, and traveling to the Naval Training Center in San Diego to share our faith with sailors in training. The first time we played in a church, people came out before we started when they spotted my electric guitar, calling it a ‘devil’s tool’!”